Political pundits, gay, lesbian rights activists in Ohio, Cleveland City Council members, community activists, Civil Rights leaders, Black community members react to President Obama's announcement to support same sex marriage

United States President Barack Obama

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (http://www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com/) and (http://www.clevelandurbannews.com/) 

WASHINGTON D.C.-  President Barack Obama publicly announced his support of same sex marriage last weekend, causing a furor of debate over the controversial issue and gaining accolades from gay and lesbian rights groups, Civil Rights activists such as former National NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and political pundits like CNN Political Contributor Donna Brazile, who called the announcement “a historical decision for justice and equality for civil and human rights."

And Cleveland area affiliates,  from Cleveland City Council members to community activists, spoke out, with many supporting the president, though Black preachers collectively remain homophobic.

"He’s out of town but I can tell you that he does not support it,"  a woman answering the phone at the main campus of the Word Church in Warrensville Hts said when asked the position of Word Church pastor the Rev. R.A. Vernon, who leads the only Black mega church in greater Cleveland and is one of Cleveland’s most influential Baptist ministers.

Prominent Cleveland Black ministers such as the Rev. Larry Harris of Mount Olive Baptist Church, Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church Bishop Eugene Ward Jr., and Cleveland Chapter SCLC President and Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church Senior Pastor The Rev. E. T. Caviness did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Other people had a lot to say about it.

“It is a courageous move that is long over due,” said Sharon Danann,  a White community activist and gay rights advocate with a master’s degree from Harvard University who is a founding member of the Imperial Women and belongs to other grassroots groups such as Black on Back Crime Inc. and the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network.

“I don’t support it because it is not a destiny that is meant to be," said  East Cleveland Community Activist Art McKoy, a founding member of Black on Black Crime.

“It will promote monogamy,” said Larry Bresler,  a west side Cleveland community activist who leads Organize Ohio and the Northeast Ohio Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Cleveland councilpersons Mamie Mitchell and Jeff Johnson, both licensed attorneys, said that they support it.

”If two people are in love and happen to be of the same sex, who are we to interfere in their affairs," said Mitchell, who represents Cleveland’s Ward 6. “I support the president’s decision."

Mitchell said that opposition to gay and lesbian rights is sometimes rooted in male machoism and that states across America that have outlawed same sex marriage might be violating the separation of church and state clause of the First Amendment by interfering in an unconstitutional fashion beyond the necessary scope in marriage, which she says is a religious based institution.

And Councilman Johnson , who highlighted that he is straight, told his Facebook friends that some people are born gay and lesbian and should not be penalized with prejudicial public policy because of it.

Even former Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes weighed in, issuing a press release last month before the president's stunning and risky announcement where Forbes, 81, and a former Cleveland councilman and mayoral candidate, said that he supports gay marriage, a move that forced the  executive board of the Cleveland NAACP to finally accept as official his Dec. 21, 2011 resignation as the organization's president.

Whether Obama will face any serious fallout from his announcement remains to be seen, and is unlikely many have said because the president is simply pushing for fair play for gay and lesbian people.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who will square off in the November general election against the Democrat Obama as the nominee for the Republican Party, quickly announced that he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, even after saying publicly  prior to his current run for president that he supports equality for gay and lesbian people.

Reach Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman at editor@clevelandurbannew.com and by phone at 216-932-3114.